Dig This Treasure!

The sale we hit this past Friday looked packed full of vintage goodness.  It was in Lincoln Park, about a half hour or so away.  There were no other sales near it, so we were taking a risk by driving out.  If the sale was a bust, we’d end up going home empty handed.  Luckily, things turned out hilariously good for us…

The living room had tables and tables full of jewelry.  That’s a photo above of Sarah perusing the goods.  I haphazardly glanced and the moved on because it was clear that everything was costume jewelry, broken junk, or cheapy Avon-type stuff. 

Things seemed like slim pickings elsewhere.  I was starting to feel discouraged.

Check out the back leg of that horse.  Someone stuck a pen cap or something on it.  I was cracking up when I saw this.  Total pirate/Robocop type sh*t right thurr.

In retrospect, I should have bought these sunglasses that said “To Hot."  They are kind of the best.  I thought that people only confused to/too/two on the internet, but it just goes to show you that grammar has been long gone for awhile.

Things were looking pretty dire.  Then we hit the basement and a guy working the sale started chatting my ear off.  He was clearly lonely down there in the cellar and was looking for any company he could get.  He started telling me about sales long past (we’re talking decades) and how some dude still owes him $25,000 for his share in a giant lot of gold coins  he found.  He then proceeded to share with me that this particular house we were at had its own hidden treasures.  See this shelving:

That bottom shelf was actually a secret hiding spot that was filled with rare baseball cards and coins!  The guy who owned the house had two giant safes, both of which were kept empty to fool robbers.  All the real goods were hidden away in this cabinetry. 

This seriously peaked my interest.  There had to be treasures in this house! I just wasn’t looking hard enough!  OK, time to work…

Sarah was still hard at work looking through jewelry, so I joined her.

And then I found this:

It was a vial filled with broken and mismatched earrings.  I chuckled because what are the actual odds that this might contain a REAL diamond?  I showed it to Sarah and jokingly mentioned how crazy it would be if in fact there WERE diamonds in here.  Sarah told me to take my chances and buy the container, and at the very least, we would have a funny story about returning to that Cash 4 Gold place we visited once.  The lady charged me $1 for the vial!

This entry is getting really long, so I will hold off on telling you about the contents of the vial until Part Two.  In the meantime, check out my final purchase from this sale.  This cool old automatic watch was still running just great, and will be an easy sell on ebay.  They charged me a mere $2 for it!  I had Zach put a new band on it so it might sell better.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: That watch right there is a beaut! Maybe I’ll buy it if she puts it up on eBay. 

So Erin summarized pretty well. The only thing I want to reinforce (if it wasn’t already crystal clear) is that there was not an abundance of really great treasures at this sale, even though the pictures online made it seem like there was. Here’s a basic summary of the sale: 

So Diamond in the Rough is truly a perfect title for this post. 

The one blog-worthy treasure I found I have to keep secret for now because it’s a gift. What I will say this sale had going for it was that the prices were insanely cheap. So cheap, in fact, that I felt sort of like I ripped these people off. When we got outside, I said to Erin, "Did we just rob them?” She answered in the affirmative. 

Anyway, I ended up with some classics of children’s literature, and some cool costume jewelry. 

Oh, and also this teeny tiny cow. 

My total, including the really awesome cool find that I can’t blog about, was $6.50. WTF?! 

Stay tuned for the second part of this story! 

About a month ago, we dedicated two posts to the Best Sale Ever, where I found a buttload of Joan Walsh Anglund items–specifically books. Remember? I posted this picture: 

I am still not finished selling everything I bought at this sale, because the quantity of things is just so overwhelming. However, I have, I believe, sold all of the Anglund items I plan on selling. And because of this, I would like to brag about the total amount of money I made.

Now, let me say this. I had planned on keeping one copy of each book–especially those that were duplicates. But then, the more I thought about this, the more I realized that was stupid. I don’t really need to own all of her books. And there were a lot that were really religious that I knew I didn’t want. I mainly like her illustrations, and I already have a set of her prints and copies of her older, more classic books. 

I also honestly had no idea what I had before I was able to start sorting it and listing it all. Some of the books had “Autographed Copy” stickers on them and others were signed but I didn’t realize it right away because they did not have the stickers. I also ended up with a TON of first editions. Needless to say, I quickly discovered that I am not by any means the only person who enjoys these adorable illustrations, and everything I listed quickly had watchers and/or bidders. So I ended up selling most everything that I wasn’t in love with. 

The biggest surprise ended up being these teeny tiny miniature books–The Christmas Cookie Book and The Christmas Candy Book, which are apparently extremely rare. I had two copies of each! To see how small they are–in the picture above they are the green and red books in the top row. 

One woman purchased 10 of these books. She sent me a very nice message and told me she has an entire bedroom in her home decorated with Anglund stuff for her granddaughter. So cute. It’s nice to hear from friendly people–it helps balance out the not-so-friendly ones. 

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase: 

Those are just a few screenshots that capture the vast quantities of cash I made off of these seemingly valueless books. Keep in mind that most of these are small books–about 4" x 6" or so…or smaller! 

Grand total sales just on these items: $595.00

(And in case anyone is wondering how much I’ve made on all the rest of the junk from that sale… I just totaled it up: $450.) 

CHA CHING. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: Sarah, I need to borrow exactly $1,045 which happens to be the total price so far on all this stuff you sold.  If you say you don’t have it for me to borrow, then you are 1. a bad friend and 2. a liar.